Philosophers Football Match (read an earlier post 'Was Socrates Offside?')
In a hard-fought game Socrates Wanderers asked questions of Nietzsche Albion, but in the end the German team’s sheer will to power won through. The first few minutes resembled op art with both teams playing in hoops and creating a complex Brownian motion to little avail.
As the match settled, patterns emerged, but no clear architectonic: the Germans rigorous attack was almost paradoxical due to the presence of anarchic comedian Arthur Smith at striker and his un-Kantian resistance to acknowledge the offside law. Smith rarely troubled fellow comedian Mark Steel who heckled from the Greek goalmouth. The LSE’s Simon Glendinning demonstrated the benefits of a European training with some graceful keeping for the Germans. Meanwhile brother and sister team Bethany Hughes (TV presenter and Historian) and Simon (cricketer switching codes for the day) added co-ordination to a Greek team that included first-time footballer and Plato expert Angie Hobbs at right back – she demonstrated an Aristotelian willingness to learn from experience.
This was a game of two halves. One nil to the Greeks at half time, but a witty team talk from ex England Manager Graham do-I-not-like-that Taylor could not compete with the wisdom of Prospect’s sage A.C. Grayling who reasoned his team to a 3-1 victory. Prospect writer David Edmonds brought bite and intelligence to a congested midfield. The Germans raised their game, at times achieving transcendence. Philosopher of sport and rugby star Emily Ryall showed phenomenological pace frequently breaking through the ruins of a crumbling Greek defence. A male streaker and a red card for Smith (for stealing the referee’s glasses) seemed to upset the logic of the Greeks and at the end of the day they were left debating what might have been.
Nigel Warburton (ref.)
Watch former England Manager Graham Taylor giving half-time talk to Greeks (Was he thinking too hard? His team went down 3-1 after this.)
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